Korean Troops Verify Removal Of Armed Guard Posts Along Border

Leaders of North and South Korea agreed to lower tensions along their border during talks in September.

North and South Korean soldiers have crossed the world's most heavily armed border to inspect each other's guard posts to verify they have been removed. 

The checks were part of Korean engagement efforts that come amid stalled US-North Korea nuclear disarmament talks.

Soldiers from the two Koreas exchanged cigarettes and chatted as they inspected the 22 dismantled guard posts - 11 from each country - inside the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) that forms their 155-mile long border.

The Demilitarised Zone was originally created as a buffer between the countries at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.

But contrary to its name, the DMZ has become the world's most heavily fortified frontier after the two nations planted an estimated 2 million mines, deployed combat troops and heavy weapons and set up layers of barbed wire fences.

When the two leaders met in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, in September, they agreed to lower military tensions along their border, including the withdrawal of some DMZ guard posts, halting live-fire exercises near the border, demilitarising their shared border village of Panmunjom and removing mines at a DMZ area to launch joint searches for Korean War dead.